


A Good Deal When You See It

by Rosencrantz



Category: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Reunions, Selkies, casefic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 12:43:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: While Cat stays behind after a case to tie up some loose ends (not that Chrestomanci told him what those ends were), things are afoot in the sleepy town of Saint Lucy.And a certain good friend's just around the corner.





	A Good Deal When You See It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aeriel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeriel/gifts).



> Thank you to Morbane for the beta!

Cat was taking in a dinner in the sleepy seaside town of Saint Lucy: a plate of whole orata that he couldn't escape the sensation was looking up at him. Chrestomanci had already gone home to Chrestomanci Castle, leaving his apprentice to tidy up the loose ends of their latest case and do the paperwork.

"It's good for you," Chrestomanci had said. "It prepares you for the job. I'll want to retire _eventually_."

Well, good practice it might have been but it was also tedious and, thanks to the far-more-shady-than-a-small-seaside-town-needs-mayor, deeply uncomfortable. He was pretty sure the mayor had tried to bribe him with the mayor's daughter's hand in marriage earlier. 

Cat pushed the fish around, in the hopes it would stop staring at him. The beady eyes looked up from the plate at him still. Great.

But their accusing glare did make him wonder. The case that had brought Cat and Chrestomanci to Saint Lucy was over. However, the mayor had continued flattering the Chrestomanci and now Cat well after the case. 

It had been a typical case of magic schemery gone wrong: a warlock had been peddling fake selkie skins, which had turned a few foolhardy men in the town into loud seals. Chrestomanci had thought it was fitting. Cat had been bit.

Cat couldn't help but wonder if the mayor was up to something himself. Men in power rarely fell over themselves for Chrestomanci and his people unless they were. 

"Here, kitty kitty," said a soft woman's voice by his ear, in a regional accent Cat knew well.

"Marianne!" he said, spinning in his chair to look at her.

"'lo, Cat," she said, taking a seat at his table. No need for her to ask for an invitation. "I came here to get some writing done and suddenly there's all sorts of interesting events happening. And still happening, if you're here."

"I'm just sorting things. Writing what? Klartch still wants you to write another adventure about gryphons. He says his university experiences can only inform your writing," said Cat wryly. "I told him you're not a story dispenser."

"Well, maybe for him," she said. Then she looked down at Cat's food. "Oh that looks ghastly. Literally looking-at-us-ghastily."

"I know," mourned Cat. "And chefs take it so personally when they catch you transforming your food."

She winked at him and waved a hand over his plate. In lieu of an angry fish, it was now a bowl of appetizing chowder.

"There, it's what I was having," she said. "She'll never know it wasn't another of hers."

Cat gave Marianne a quick 'bless you!' and dug in.

"So! I heard about the cursed pelts," said Marianne. 

"Mmm," said Cat between bites. "They thought they were getting a one-of-a-kind selkie skin to get a seal wife, but once each man got a hundred meters from the warlock, the skins transformed whoever was holding them into a seal. Broken charm. Extremely broken charm."

"No selkies?"

"Heavens no," said Cat. "The pelts were supposed to vanish in the night after the warlock had skipped town. We found him the next town over. And that was, as they say, that."

Story finished, Cat gave Marianne a fond smile.

Marianne smiled just as fondly back at Cat, resting her chin in her hand. "It's been what, a year since I saw you last? It doesn't feel like that."

"Well, letters."

"It's not the same," she said. "You're filling out nicely."

Cat coughed on his soup.

"Well, it's true! I COULD say it like one of my aunts, that you're becoming a healthy piece of man, but-- oh stop coughing, Cat." Marianne abruptly stopped teasing and handed him a napkin.

"I think I'm done with dinner," he gasped, taking in air.

"That shocking?"

"When I'm swallowing? Yes."

He put money on the table and they strode out, Cat trying not to think of people looking at him after his choking fit. His casualness around Marianne had not extended to others. 

"So all that training and he has you doing paperwork for him?" asked Marianne. "Let's go for a walk on the beach, it's really lovely here. We can catch up."

Cat nodded and headed oceanwards with her. "Yes, he says it's preparation for the main parts of the job. I think he just doesn't like doing it."

"He has a secretary for that!" said Marianne.

"Well..." said Cat, feeling thoughtful.

"Oh, well, I shouldn't complain. It meant we saw each other," she said. She took Cat's hand. 

Cat shot her a little smile.

The path to the beach was lovely, as all of Saint Lucy seemed to be. The architecture of the buildings and street was all a monarchy ago and the paved stones made a satisfying click-click as they walked down them to get to the solid stone steps that led down to the seal-covered beach.

"I've been talking with the fishermen around here for my latest," said Marianne. "My last book, where I made that dreadful mistake about the cyanide, has me on my guard for research. At least _that_ story didn't turn out to be real."

"Small favours," said Cat. "I still liked it. When is the world-traveling writer going to come for a visit home? I've missed you a great deal."

"Mmm. I just row with my father, that's the problem," said Marianne. "But we could meet up."

"We could," he answered.

Before they could pursue that thought (as well as the stairs down to the beach), they were were startled by the sound of a throat being loudly cleared. 

As if out of nowhere, the mayor and his one-man entourage had appeared.

"Eric, my boy!" said the mayor, gripping Cat's shoulder a bit roughly. The mayor was smaller than Cat, with bright white hair from his ears down to his shoulders that was pin-straight. His face had a red flush and he could have used some solid meals.

"Sir Mayor?" said Cat politely, trying to ease free and avoid the eyes of the mayor's… secretary? Bodyguard? Son? Assistant? This was a huge man who looked like a sense of humour was something that happened to other people. 

"I was just thinking of you! I was wondering how much your boss," - the mayor had been very careful to never say the summoning name of Chrestomanci - "pays you. Lots of work in Porto Sainta Lucia for a boy of your skills."

"Ah, well, it's not actually about pay -" started Cat.

"Oh, sir?" said Marianne.

"Yes? What do you want?" said the mayor, charm lost.

"It's just there's three angry women making their way over here. Do you know them?" said Marianne, pointing to the stairs to the beach that she and Cat had just been about to descend. Indeed, there were three women with arms like trees and not a stitch of clothing between them storming up the steps.

The mayor went pale and ran, shoving Cat towards the women like a sacrifice. After a fraction of hesitation, the mayor's minion ran too.

"Get him!" shouted the women. 

Cat and Marianne flattened themselves against the nearest house. The street by the beach steps was just the wrong size to make it easy to dodge three large, muscular, angry women storming the town racing side by side. The women ignored them, eyes only for the retreating mayor.

"I should do something," he said.

"Let them get that man first," said Marianne.

"Come on," said Cat, galloping off after the women. Marianne hiked up her skirts and followed.

Saint Lucy's steep, beautiful streets played host to the thundering parade of running people. The mayor was in the front, small legs pumping to escape danger, his huge minion close behind and gaining fast. Then came the three women, with their huge thudding feet and their snarls (Cat shivered, he'd had a quick glance at too-large canines in the women's mouths) and Cat and Marianne made up the rear of the procession.

The mayor made it to the town hall just in time, slamming the door in his minion's face. The door locked with a loud **click**.

"Ebenezer, you righteous pile of--!" shouted the huge man, slamming his fists on the door.

The women descended on him. 

That's when Cat and Marianne went from observing to intervening, working together to separate all parties straight into the air where they floated, arms and legs working frantically, all trying to pick a fight.

"Hello," said Cat. "I'm the Chrestomanci's apprentice and I have some questions for you, ladies."

"Let me down!" shouted the man. Ivan! Cat remembered his name now.

"I think you should stay," he said.

"Oh yes, I think you could help clear up some things," said Marianne cheerfully. As far as she and Cat were concerned, she was Cat's partner in this now.

"We want their skin!" said the biggest woman. Her canines were so long they could have been fangs. Or... tusks?

"It's really not that good, their skin," said Cat. "Why?"

From inside the beautifully stucco'd town hall, the sound of furniture being shoved against the door could be heard.

"They took it from our friends," said the smallest of the three.

"Your friends?" asked Marianne, then her eyes widened. "Seals? Please say seals."

"Of course seals!" said the middle woman who was, while still large, not the largest. "Why would our friends be humans?"

"Good question," said Cat. Then louder: "Mr. Mayor! Did you happen to help that warlock get those skins he was selling?"

"Of course he bloody well did," said Ivan. "He was all in on it. He'd hire local magic users to drum up some special charms to bamboozle the tourists, collect his winnings, and then tell the warlocks and witches to get lost. Ebenezer, I hope you heard that!"

"You ass!" yelled the mayor from inside the town hall.

"I'm sorry about your friends," said Cat sincerely. "But I can't let you eat these men."

"It's only right," said the smallest woman. 

The other women - selkies, Cat realized now, or perhaps walrus women if that would explain the huge teeth - nodded. 

"I'm a... human authority. I can punish them our way," he explained.

"Or we could eat them," said the middle-sized woman.

"Yes, that would be easiest," said the largest.

"It would," whispered Marianne. Cat kept a straight face.

"In fact, I'm going to send them to be dealt with right now," said Cat, waving a hand and sending Ivan and the Mayor hurtling through the space in between him and Chrestomanci. If Chrestomanci was going to leave him in the dark with busy work, apparently to follow up on leads Chrestomanci didn't even feel like outlining, he could deal with the fallout himself.

The women roared in anger.

"Don't worry, they're going to be quite miserable," said Cat. "I swear. I'm going to let you down now."

"Please don't try to eat us," said Marianne. "I'm horribly stringy."

"Fine," said the largest. "Humans taste foul anyway."

"I'm choosing not to ask how you know," said Cat diplomatically. "Do you want an official escort back to the beach as a show of good faith?"

They waved him away in disgust. But as they went, the middle-sized one looked back.

"They will pay, won't they?"

"They will," Cat said. "I promise."

The selkie nodded and left with her friends.

"So, magical scams are how many years?" said Marianne, leaning against Cat.

"Longer than seal poaching, luckily for the course of justice," said Cat. "They'll face what they did those selkies' seal friends."

"Impressive creatures," said Marianne.

"Oh yes. Those tourists were quite lucky they didn't get a real selkie skin. They would have been torn to shreds for even thinking of enslaving them."

Marianne pecked Cat's cheek. "I'm all worked up now from that run. Cat, I've really missed you. All this work I've been doing has been fun, but..."

"I've missed you too," he said. "I've got even more reports to do here now. How long were you planning to stay?"

"How long will your reports take?" she answered.

"Long enough to be used as a good excuse to stay here with you for a short vacation," he said, and kissed her gently. Their first kiss as adults.

She kissed him back. "Then I suppose we're going to be seeing a lot of each other, Mr. Chant," said Marianne.

"That suits me wonderfully," said Cat.


End file.
